Presidential search committee reaches out to campus community

Solicits ideas on qualities next president should possess

Jan. 21, 2010

The committee charged with helping to select the university's next president has solicited advice from constituencies across campus and beyond as it prepares to move into the active phase of its search, officials said.

Trustee Meyer Koplow '72, who chairs the 13-member presidential search committee, said the information gleaned in more than two dozen meetings with faculty, staff, students, trustees, donors, alumni and others has proved invaluable to the panel.

"The suggestions, ideas and insights we received will greatly shape our efforts to find and recruit the best possible successor to President Reinharz," Koplow said.

Reinharz, who has led the university since 1994, announced in September that he will step down as president no later than June 2011 to lead a major foundation. In October, the board appointed a committee of trustees, faculty, alumni and a student to lead the search for Brandeis' eighth president.

In their meetings, committee members asked what qualities the new president should possess, what about the university could be changed or improved and what should be preserved, Koplow said. "We have tried hard to ensure that anyone who wished to be heard has been given that opportunity," he said.

He said the committee is expected to hire a firm to assist in the search by the end of this month, develop a candidate profile and case statement by the end of February and begin the search sometime in March.